WordPress 7.0 Is Almost Here — Here’s Everything Developers Need to Know
The WordPress Developer Blog has published its comprehensive April 2026 roundup, and it’s packed with major developer-facing changes heading into WordPress 7.0. While the release date has been pushed back slightly to finalize the Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) database architecture, the feature set is locked in. A new schedule will be announced no later than April 22nd.
🤝 Real-Time Collaboration (RTC)
WordPress 7.0’s headline feature is Real-Time Collaboration in the Block Editor, powered by Yjs as the underlying CRDT engine. HTTP polling is used for universal hosting compatibility — no WebSocket support required (though hosts can customize via the sync.providers filter).
- Classic meta boxes via add_meta_box() will disable collaboration mode. Migrate to register_post_meta() and a PluginSidebar component.
- Collaborator text selections are now visible in real-time (Gutenberg 22.8), with redesigned presence avatars.
- A dedicated database table for collaboration data is being finalized — this is the fix causing the slight release delay.
🤖 WP AI Client & Connectors API
WP AI Client is a new core PHP library providing a standardized interface for AI services. Instead of each plugin integrating directly with OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google, the WP AI Client provides a single abstraction layer — switching providers becomes a configuration change, not a code rewrite.
The Connectors API establishes credentials storage and provider selection as platform-level infrastructure. Official provider plugins are available for OpenAI, Google AI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Ollama, and Mistral.
⚡ Client-Side Abilities API
The Abilities API now has its JavaScript counterpart in 7.0 via two new packages: @wordpress/abilities (pure state management) and @wordpress/core-abilities (WordPress integration layer that auto-fetches server-registered abilities via REST). This lays the groundwork for browser agents and WebMCP integration.
🛝 WordPress Playground MCP Server
WordPress Playground now has an official MCP server via the @wp-playground/mcp package. One command wires up Claude Code or Gemini CLI to a browser-based Playground instance:
claude mcp add --transport stdio --scope user wordpress-playground -- npx -y @wp-playground/mcpThe MCP server exposes tools for site management, PHP code execution, navigation, and filesystem operations — all locally, without touching the WordPress admin.
🎨 Other Notable Developer Changes
- Block Visibility: Show/hide blocks per device via the new viewport key in blockVisibility metadata — implemented via CSS, not DOM removal.
- Pattern Overrides for Custom Blocks: Synced patterns can now include custom blocks with per-instance content edits.
- Pseudo-element support in theme.json: Style :hover, :focus, :focus-visible, and :active states on button blocks without custom CSS.
- Interactivity API: state.navigation is deprecated. Migrate to the new watch() function.
- @wordpress/build: New esbuild-based build tool replacing the webpack/Babel pipeline in @wordpress/scripts.
- PHP minimum: WordPress 7.0 drops PHP 7.2 and 7.3 support. New minimum is PHP 7.4, with PHP 8.2+ recommended.
📅 What’s Next?
A new release schedule will be announced no later than April 22nd. The full Field Guide will be published alongside the rescheduled release. Keep an eye on make.wordpress.org/core for updates.
Hashtags: #WordPress #WordPress7 #WebDevelopment #WPDev #AI #RealTimeCollaboration #WordPressDevelopment #Gutenberg #MCP
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